What's next for 'The Help' author Kathryn Stockett

Updated 1:24 pm, Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Kathryn Stockett received dozens of rejection letters before "The Help" was published.

Kathryn Stockett received dozens of rejection letters before "The Help" was published.

Photo: Rogelio V. Solis, Associated Press

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Author Kathryn Stockett poses by a poster for the movie made from her book prior to a benefit screening of "The Help" in Madison, Miss., Saturday, July 30, 2011. The film is based on the New York Times best-selling book by Stockett about the lives of three women in the 1960s Mississippi. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis) less

Author Kathryn Stockett poses by a poster for the movie made from her book prior to a benefit screening of "The Help" in Madison, Miss., Saturday, July 30, 2011. The film is based on the New York Times ... more

Photo: Rogelio V. Solis, STF

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BOOK JACKET - cover image of book, The Help, by Kathryn Stockett.

BOOK JACKET - cover image of book, The Help, by Kathryn Stockett.

Photo: handout

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"THE HELP" - Aibileen Clark (Viola Davis) overhears the exchange between Skeeter Phelan (Emma Stone, center) and her friends in DreamWorks Pictures' drama, "The Help", based on the New York Times best-selling novel by Kathryn Stockett.
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"THE HELP" - Aibileen Clark (Viola Davis) overhears the exchange between Skeeter Phelan (Emma Stone, center) and her friends in DreamWorks Pictures' drama, "The Help", based on the New York Times best-selling ... more

Perhaps the walk makes her less guarded, too. Here is a woman who has been interviewed hundreds of times about "The Help" - her debut novel that touched a major chord with readers, resonating louder and longer than anyone could have anticipated. Yet Stockett doesn't come back with canned answers to my questions. She comes off as thoughtful and frank.

The financial and artistic success of "The Help" has been "a nice outcome," she says, in her melodious Mississippi drawl, down-playing the staggering 10 million copies sold since its release in February 2009.

"And yet … cringe-worthy," she adds, giving herself a few seconds to find the right word.

The book is inspired by a black woman named Dimitri, who worked as a maid for Stockett's family when the author was a child. Aibileen's character in "The Help" is based on Dimitri.

"I feel like I'm earning a living off someone who did our family such a great service and who died poor and alone," the author says. "I think about that, and it's not a comfortable feeling."

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So she tries to give back, supporting public schools, arts and literacy programs.

She's come a long way over the past decade.

It took Stockett five years to write "The Help" and three years to find a publisher. She famously endured dozens of rejection letters before Amy Einhorn Books (a division of Penguin) agreed to publish the book.

Since then, Stockett has toured four times for the novel and sat through a movie shoot.

A housekeeper for Stockett's brother later filed a lawsuit against Stockett claiming the author had used her name (Ablene Cooper) and likeness for "The Help." The case was dismissed when a judge determined the suit was filed after the one-year statute of limitations for misappropriation claims.

"I've had a very long relationship with the story," Stockett says. "I'm kind of ready to move on."

And she has - by plugging away at book No. 2.

Expectations for her second novel are high, to say the least. Is she worried about a sophomore slump?

"Everyone's been very … silent," Stockett says. "I think they've seen it happen to enough people. There are those one-hit wonders."

She admits to blowing her first deadline more than a year ago. No one has put any pressure on her since.

"I almost wish they would," Stockett says. "All the pressure is coming from within."

As yet, there is no title for the second book, which follows a group of women with no marketable skills who must somehow find a way to survive in the early decades of the 20th century.

"It's set in Oxford, Miss., and it straddles the Roaring '20s and the Great Depression because I like the dichotomy of the time, and I like to think about how it reflects on our times," Stockett explains.

"I don't know anyone … who is going without food, but that was very common in the 1920s. You had to stretch everything. So I love the idea of these women living in Mississippi, not having any training or skills, not even expecting they'd have to earn their own living. All the men die or run off; the men don't have a huge part in the story. I love to see what people do when the pressure is really on. That's when we see the best of ourselves or the worst of ourselves."

Stockett told her publisher she'd have a draft ready by February.

"I don't know if I'll make that deadline," she says gaily, "but you can write, 'She's working furiously on her new book and hopes it comes out very soon.' "